Thatch screwpine

Marshall Islanders know dozens of pandanus varieties with sweet fruit – the flesh is made into juice, paste and food stores for droughts.

The thatch screwpine is a small tree with a trunk supported on prop roots and long, spiny leaves arranged spirally at the ends of the branches. Its large, round compound fruits resemble a pineapple and are made up of orange, fibrous segments whose sweet, juicy base is sucked or cooked. Cultivated varieties are propagated from branches, selecting those with the sweetest and least fibrous fruit. The dried leaves are woven into mats and baskets, and were once used for canoe sails.

Significance in the country

Alongside the coconut and breadfruit, pandanus is a pillar of the traditional diet in the Marshall Islands, and the cooked and dried flesh can be stored for many months. Weaving pandanus leaves – into the famous mats and handbags, among other things – is an important craft of Marshallese women.

Where it grows

On all inhabited atolls, planted around houses and in groves; the most varieties are grown on the southern atolls.

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